This is a love story of a very different sort. "He awoke. It was a shock. He hurt too much to be dead. He nearly resented it. He should be dead. He'd felt the shot that killed him. Everyone else was dead. His father, brother, cousins, friends, all dead and he was alive. After that, the realization he was looking at a chain around his wrist and arm wasn't even surprising." "Not restraints, chains. Why chains? They were old things, used for decorative purposes, but not these. They were shiny new and looked like steel. He smiled slightly. He'd decided he wanted to be alive after all. He wanted to learn why chains." Caerdonna was a beautiful world and well-suited to human settlement, then the disaster that couldn't happen had. When great disaster strikes, society must adapt to survive. The woman who'd been president, when it happened, was sent aid for her world. She thought she might be able to protect it.